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Launched at 9:34:00 am EST on July 26, 1971, ''Apollo 15'' took four days to reach the Moon. After spending two hours in orbit around the Earth, the S-IVB third stage of the Saturn V was reignited to send them to the Moon. During the retrieval of the Lunar Module (LM) from its stowed position below the Command/Service Module (CSM), a light came on on the control panel that indicated the valves of the Service Propulsion System were open and the engine should be firing. A short was found in a switch that controlled the redundant valves for the engine. New procedures were developed to deal with this. During their first inspection of the LM, Scott and Irwin found that the glass cover of a tapemeter had broken forcing them to clean up the glass shards lest they breathe them in. On the fourth day they entered into lunar orbit and prepared for lunar descent. ==Launch and Trans-Lunar Injection== The crew were awakened at 4:19 am EST. After brief medical exams, they ate breakfast with the backup and support crews. They then put on their spacesuits and were taken by van to the launch site, where they arrived at 6:45 am. This was about 2½ hours before launch. During the launch phase of the flight, Scott sat in the left-hand seat of the CSM, Worden in the center seat, and Irwin in the right-hand seat. ''Apollo 15'' was launched at 9:34:00 am EST on July 26, 1971. One of the few problems encountered during the launch phase came at the separation of the first and second stages. Solid-fuel retrorockets had been removed from the interstage between the first and second stages. These rockets were used to settle the fuel and oxidizer in the S-II. The first stage engines did not cutoff cleanly, taking over four seconds to drop from 2% thrust to zero. This meant that the S-IC was closer to the S-II than planned and the ignition of the second stage disabled the telemetry package on the first stage. Eleven minutes and 34 seconds after launch the crew were in their Earth parking orbit 92.5 by 91.5 nm (171.3 by 169.5 km). An orbit of this height is not sustainable for very long due to friction with the Earth's atmosphere, but the crew would only spend three hours before reigniting the S-IVB third stage to put them on a lunar-bound trajectory. About 485 lb (220 kg) of liquid oxygen (LOX) was lost through an open vent of the S-IVB after the rocket was pitched down too quickly after cutoff. One of the windows of the ''Apollo 15'' CSM was specifically designed to transmit ultraviolet radiation, permitting the crew to acquire UV photographs of the Earth and the Moon. These photographs began as soon as they reached Earth orbit and would continue throughout the mission. During times when they were not using the window, Mission Control had them place a cover over the window that blocked the UV, in an effort to minimize their exposure. Two hours, 50 minutes and 2.6 seconds after launch the S-IVB reignited and burned for 5 minutes and 49 seconds. The burn increased the spacecraft's speed from 25,620 feet per second (7,809 m/s) to 35,522 feet per second (10,827 m/s). The altitude had been raised to 167.4 nautical miles (310.0 km). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Journey of Apollo 15 to the Moon」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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